It's Personal

A girl running through lavender fields. Pic via Jezebel via the Getty.








An illustrated Mario death by John-
ny Yakon, via Offwo-
rld.




































Today's speed run time: 14 minutes until the end of 7-1. I tried out a little bit of "Super Mario: The Lost Levels". Here was my reaction: "I don't see why this was considered too hard for Western au-"/murdered.
I used to suck at the first Mario. I played a single game today, got up to 5-3 and then was killed by Bowser's castle.
My mom used to play the first Mario with us and actually was very good at beating it. In fact, she was considered "the expert" in the family on that game.

Speaking of my mom, she picked up Clingy today, who was so shocked he didn't even struggle. She put him down and he proceeded to hide, then come back and play on the patio. My mom corrected me, as it has been over two weeks since we last saw Gaiylee herself.

Look at the language in this article from the Reuters:
"But Paal cautioned Clinton against hanging her reputation too much on improved relations with China.

"We are not in a position to control them," he said."

There is always the possibility that this man's quote was taken out of context. However, it is very telling of the imprints of foreign policy in this country, even if Obama is trying to change them.

I didn't copy or write down a lot of stuff today.

Wouldn't it be cool if there were bridges that were water and held together by water tension in a theoretical world? It would be so trippy to swim through them and put a hand out into the air.

Physorg.com published an article on friction free computer circuits via quantum mechanics. I'm too lazy to link. Go do it yourself!

So I have over two hundred entries in this journal, which is impressive. I love writing and I love sharing cool stuff with people. Blogs are a perfect balance of the two. I feel strange writing a diary on the computer, especially since I don't want to have one somewhere that is ultimately hackable, but I dislike writing by hand since, well, I'm faster at typing and my handwriting starts to resemble random loops after a while. I just figured it out! A flash drive!

Flash drives, though certainly hackable if you put the wrong things in them or leave them connected to the computer, are the first ultra-easy ways to distribute data that don't require linking computers directly and actually keep the information remote from the rest of the digital world(if you don't keep them connected to the computer, again). They are our first private digitilized miniaturized domains widely available to the public. And don't tell me about external HDs, because those are not miniaturized, at least in comparison to the flash drive.

Of course, unlike a book, you need a computer to make a flash drive work, an extra piece of equipment that must take part in the process. And boot before starting the process. Ah, the booting.

The original Star Trek is an entertaining, theoretical and thoughtful show. What it is not is in any way realistic. Which is now I bring to you this parody; look for upcoming ones about Grecian gods appearing, geniuses going insane, and time travel. This particular one is based on "it's scientifically impossible!"; specifically "Shore Leave" from season one, which I actually enjoyed quite a bit.

1.) The landing party beams down and everything looks perfectly normal on their sensors because their sensors are crappy. Also, everywhere looks like Earth because of Somebody's Law of Planetary BS(or, we reuse the same drawings as alien backdrops several times).

2.)Something impossible is seen and hard proof of its existence is found, usually corresponding with the word "fascinating". Spock's soul dies a little more.

3.)People still think that it's a good idea to split up because that makes for dramatic death scenes which lead to dramatic scenes for Captain Kirk to lament over his crew member. Or Kirk still thinks that crew members can handle themselves even though they keep dying because they have PHASERS*
*Note: phasers usually knocked out or taken away by the end of the episode

4.) Captain Kirk meets THE GIRL. All girls in this galaxy have an inexplicable attraction to at least one member of the crew, usually the one who's name is an anagram for "Tiberius Kirk James". And that specific member tends to "genuinely" fall for this woman in return because they have sexual ADD. McCoy, Spock, and Kirk have at least 5 women each who are waiting for them to settle down with.
In this episode Kirk meets a special lady from his past of which he has 6 million. He must have been dating some of these girls at the same time as each other or be a serial monogamist, because, how many relationships can you have in twenty-something years?
P.S. Kirk's charm has won more battles for the federation than the Enterprise herself. The Federation should just package up an "essence du Kirk" and send it around instead of spaceships.**
**Working parts included.

5.) Their phasers stop working. Suprise! Also, The Enterprise is helpless for one reason or another because the scientists in this time period are too busy focusing on how cool it would be to be able to "blow up half a continent" rather than "shields that work properly", despite the fact that the Enterprise is mainly a defensive ship. Communicators are out, too, and for some reason it never occurs to them to use the injectable trackers besides as a deux ex machina for prying them out of their arm and setting things on fire in a Nazi jail. Yes, this actually happened.

I mean, nothing usually goes wrong, right?
Wait.

6.) So now the crew is being chased and seduced by a wide variety of things that turn up for no reason despite the fact that it's pretty obvious now what's happening. Everyone seems to have lost their critical thinking skills....

7.) Which leads to the Shatner vrs. somebody fight. Badly choreographed and involving lots of rolling, I'm never quite sure what the point of these are.

8.) Spock and Kirk figure out the solution and start acting on it, because the show is running out of time and Shatner's shirt has finally ripped open. Then the solution appears out of nowhere, in this case a peaceful creator who was waiting to intervene until the emotional scarring occurred. The explanation is cool, but sort of leaves you going "wait, but what about...". Also, the skimpily clad girls couldn't not show up, so they decided to include them at the end. Everybody is happy and Kirk decides to spend time with a cellular cast of one of his many long-lost loves.

Huh?

Rebel, Rebel

This makes me wonder if people would have the same reaction here in America. Would we rally and rebel, or would we scream and cry in print while doing nothing at all? America is a huge country, and the state of all of that land in anarchy is a terrifying proposal. Would we storm the capital? Who would we put in charge? One could argue that the 2000 election was a very poor cover-up, as many have, but besides plunging the economy into the worst recession since the great depression and attacking individual, scientific, and women's rights, Bush wasn't that bad. Maybe we should have rioted...but the point is that even Bush in his eight years could not overturn the system of checks and balances besides in the things he kept absolutely secret from the public.
This whole thing kind of makes me want to hug Obama.

Warren Buffet is creating his own cartoon line to teach kids about business. The late and great Carl Sagan will also be in a different comic along the same lines. Whenever I see things like this it always stirs up suspicion in my mind, because why would the most successful financial people really want company? Better to activate the Pavlovian centers with a few tricks that are successful and a whole lot more that creates a "slightly above average average investor" at most. On "Kosmos", while the book is AWESOME and everyone should read it(I have it back if you want to borrow it), the original series failed to keep the attention of a classroom of middle schoolers. Then again, not much does, but Sagan exuded too much sexy 1970's man to keep myself and the couple of other astronomy buff's attention on the screen. The long out-of-style "K" at the beginning makes me doubly suspicious, since Sagan was an eloquent and extremely smart scientist whom everybody should read, not some jazzed-up-for-jaded-youth lame rap afficiando. Don't mess this up, AOL. Of course, this is AOL we're talking about.

Here is a huge collection of vintage television and movies.



This is a video of the Iranian police attacking a car, taken from Mousavi's Twitter feed. It's strange, because their streets look so much like our streets despite 5000 miles and a bunch of freaky armed GIs. The picture was taken from the flickr stream of a protest on the streets. Come on Iranians, I know you can win against this dictator.

The Past and the Present

Walter Cronkite was an anchor before I was born. I am struck by his face here, a face which would not be seen on television today despite the sonorous voice which is obviously the basis for many similar ones throughout the era. I'm reminded of a quote of a comment on the Freakanomics blog: "Now that there are so many voices you have to shout louder and harder to be heard", discussing the uprising of the screaming pundit. Cronkite was the antithesis of these red-faced men, a fact I have heard casually mentioned in several sources so far.

In this video I can actually feel the nation's panic. I can feel would it would be like if our respected, loved president was shot, the weight of the announcement. I could feel myself trying to hope, even though I already knew how the story ended.



He had to report on some horrifically sad stories. It has been a long time since I've seen footage of Martin Luther King. His last speech..watching him as an obviously intelligent and angry man showing his roots as a pastor. I've almost never thought of Dr. King as a man, even after reading about his life.

I know Cronkite was reading what was written for him, but hearing "negro" used without any humor behind it sends shivers up my spine. It scares me that my parents were teenagers when this happened. I can't imagine a world without MLK, or at least don't want to. So short ago without him I would have been another "coloured" person.

Warren Ellis linked the first episode of a British series called "Quartermass". I haven't watched all of it, but here is a quote from the professor:

"The union of a corrupt Democracy(America) and a bloated tyranny(Soviet Union)...their diseases are too strong for us small countries. When we catch them we sicken and we die."

I also really agree with this Jezebel article:

"It's a very strange cycle, when one thinks about it: Marilyn Monroe didn't even exist, she was a construct of the studios, a costume worn by Norma Jean Baker in order to navigate the strange waters of celebrity and sex. Every time we hold Marilyn up as an ideal, we're holding up the notion that a woman has to reinvent herself to the point of losing herself completely, hiding under layers of beauty and glitz as a means to hide a very real sense of pain and fear beneath. Though her unabashed sexuality has been celebrated, she was also objectified and used by those around her; she became, and remains, a product used to sell tickets and t-shirts and magazines. She was a victim many times over, but it seems that young actresses choose to latch on to her exterior as opposed to the person below the surface, and where a cautionary tale should be, an idolization is instead.

Perhaps it's time for Lindsay Lohan, and for everyone else, to stop parading around in Marilyn Monroe costumes and acting as if it's glamorous or fun. If Marilyn Monroe taught us anything, it's that there's no real happiness in being someone you're not."

Progress

Star Trek predicts the 1990s are a time of bloody world war and our first space travel. We may not be colonizing other planets, but this is because we instead "chose" to make scientific, medical, and engineering progress, this choice, of course, being the result of various social and political pressures. The things science is now accomplishing were a dream in the 1960's and are in many ways simply amazing.

I find that, in a way, Star Trek is more of a scientific fairy tale than science fiction. Scenarios may utilize science at times, but this is far outweighed by the number of unscientific and improbable elements involved in many episodes so far. This is not to say that the scenarios have not been clever and interesting to watch. I find that I am really enjoying the show, and am almost finished with the first season. Since every episode is fifty minutes in length I cannot watch more than one per day, and two is stretching things.

People have treated space as the frontier, but what about the internet? We need more novels like this.

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When a significant other is having a difficult experience it is not right to abandon him or her even if the experience is affecting the relationship. Examples of difficult experiences include finding a job or prolonged illness. It is only if the affected partner makes no effort to recover that perhaps action is necessary. Being critical is in fact counter-productive because in addition to the initial stressor the affected partner has to cope with the disapproval of her significant other while the "support group" affect of partnership is negated. If your partner is going through a difficult time, please attempt to put yourself in his or her shoes.
Yes, there is a story behind this paragraph, but I am not willing to share it. No, the inspiration was not Chris.

I dislike it when individuals claim to constantly be "calling people out" as this generally implies a sense of their being superior to the general population. This method is tends to be ineffective due to the extremely blunt and sometimes condescending way in which it is usually used which makes the actual message get lost in communication. People are not generally receptive to profanities or tones which imply they are being talked down to. Furthermore, the general implication is that people are liars or do not know how to analyze their own feelings or minds.

When someone does deserve to be "called out", most of the time he or she is not going to be receptive to the truth and it is better to trust that life and experience will show it to him rather than attempt to win a fruitless battle of words. There are few cases where this is false.

Happy Fourth of July!

From Cracked

Picture from a Manta Ray feeding frenzy. Source

"Mantas and whale sharks commonly feed together, untroubled by the occasional collision. As many as 200 rays and a half dozen whale sharks have been counted in a period of several hours, British marine biologist Guy Stevens reports."
Source

Apparently there was a massive bank fraud in EVE online. I'm amused and horrified.


There is a new Turkish reality show pitting a Buddhist monk, a Rabbi, an Imam, and a Greek Orthodox priest against each other to see who can convert the most atheists. Missing the point much?

A 19 year old was arrested for tripping on weed and LSD, thinking he was Terminator, and then running around a casino naked. What not to do on your day off.

I love this piece about "5 presidential elections even dumber than this one".

So I was staring at a tree, thinking "I want to climb this tree". I know, I know, I'm an adult and tree-climbing is not for adults. Well, you're wrong; it's not for boring adults. Anyways, I was thinking about climbing it and defending it from trespassers, when I went "Holy crap, that's not an inborn notion".
Or is it? Were the Native Americans taught to squash their inborn urge of possession? I'm not an anthropologist so I couldn't give a comparison of cultures and their native practices or what is generally considered "tribal" vrs "individual" property. Did the Mongols in their migration routes consider the land itself "theirs", or did they consider the land a place to defend and live upon? The most obvious place to look for an answer to the general question would be pre-history.
The notion of individual possession and tribal possession obviously have different limits in different cultures. We are taught at as young an age as possible what is ours and what is not. Children, at first, consider everything to be grabable(and breakable). It is more likely they do not possess the distinction of ownership than that they consider every object a possession. This is probably the most compelling evidence questioning the innateness of this drive. When a child screams "mine" after having a toy taken away it's more likely that the object is simply desired at the moment than that he or she feels he has ownership of it. Obviously, though, these are just hypothesis.
Would artists feel pain at having their creations taken away? Would scientists gall at having a theory used without their names cited? What would happen to the notion of plagiarism? The notion of ownership has very obvious advantages and disadvantages.

It would be awesome if they created a school which utilized children's existing knowledge to discover new knowledge, like a game or exciting job. I also really believe that a school in the manner of Plato would be much more effective than the Socratic schools we have now. People do think knowledge is cool and like finding out how things work.

It's fun to analyze feminism in Star Trek. The show is fairly progressive in many ways, though it still is struggling between the notions of women as powerfully sexual beings, workers just as capable as their male counterparts, and wives. Both Kirk and many of the women on the show are portrayed as extremely attractive; in fact, one of the reoccurring factors of the plot is attractive women and Kirk seducing them with his genuinely deep good-boy ways. Whatever happened to guys like that? Did they ever really exist? Star Trek is more moral than a lot of the show on today.
Btw, the episode "The Conscience of the King" is really good. Also, why is Scotty the only one with an accent?



Here is a short sketch comedy parodying what it would be like if homeopaths ran the emergency room:

Self-Referential

This happens to me all the time, except that it's usually what I'm thinking and I don't eat giraffes. From xkcd.

Thoughts on Star Trek:
1.)I like that after any of the characters have an outburst, they apologize
2.)Apparently being in space for so long has made the crew and captain susceptible to any pretty female who is not in charge of the ship's communications.
3.)Those are really short skirts. The crew is lucky that gusts of wind don't exist on the ship.

This article on memory strengthens the theory of memory connections I mentioned before. There is probably a more eloquent way to phrase the previous sentence.

This article from Jezebel about the abuses of the fashion industry, where young girls are powerlessly in the hands of much older and more experienced men, and citing the prevalence of rape in our society, is devastating and something I would definitely recommend checking out.

Another article discusses the true perils and motivations for mothers who adopt from Africa vrs celebrities like Madonna. It also elaborates on a sentence that I posted yesterday: "I don't think that all people from third-world countries are broken or something similar". There is a difference between feeling empathy for others and portraying them as simple, lower beings needing our mercy. People were whole, complete beings long before electricity was harnessed; I just don't think it's fair that somebody's relative or child could potentially die of the flu or something similar. I could write a lot on this topic, clarifying and clarifying, even putting in my own personal experiences, but I will leave it here for now.

Muhahaha, my picture is the first, second, and third result for my full name on Google. On one hand I want this blog to be the first result, but on the other I have an unusual enough name that it probably would not be hard to find out a lot of details about me, especially since I have mentioned the general area where I live. Perhaps when I need to be hired I will make the switch, as I know potential employers look for web presence. I have deliberately not promoted this blog up to this time.

It's interesting that the first hits for "SchizotypalVamp" are ones which I barely use. I don't particularly comment on io9 or Jezebel. I haven't used Library Thing since I was fifteen or sixteen. My original idea was that a searchable database for our collection would be ideal so that we could confirm if we had a book or not before buying it, since we did accidentally get a few books twice. One hundred and twenty-two books later I realized that if I continued I would never get a chance to actually read anything since there remained many more still to be listed. I have posted once on Twitter. I haven't visited The Planted Tank/Frank's Aquarium/MFK in forever. I haven't used my Flickr in a long time, either. But it's nice that my pseudonym retains exclusivity in a Google search.

Frosty posted about Vermicomposting in her apartment earlier today. My attempts to create a compost pile at home fizzled, and it's always something I wished I could do. There was the slight issue in my last home that my parents would string me up as a warning to other messy daughters. However, looking at the composting bins in the pictures of this article, I could always get a box and put it outside. Heck, I could even pretend it was a table, a table my mom would never, ever sit at.
Now when I mentioned getting more plants to my mom, her answer summarized to "you better not make it any more difficult to move out", a sucky but valid point. However, I live right by a university. If making a few calls does not help, I can always dump the fertilizer in the random nature park.

"Why did you bring a large plastic bag on the bus?"
"Uh...no reason"

I'll figure it out. Meanwhile, I believe they sell earthworms at Petsmart. I'm off to go get myself in trouble. Also some pizza.

This is SO COOL

Love, Money, Art and Science

Comics are from xkcd

This article analyzes how paper money hurts the economy. It brings up some interesting points that I have never considered before and has three basic keys:

1.) The US government spends a LOT of money minting money
2.) The infrastructure is already in place for a digital switch
3.)Most money is already only in existence electronically

Here is the main problem I have with this article: most of the world does not have the infrastructure to make the switch to digitalized money. I can see how this could be countered by simply doing business deal in other country's money, but one of the powers of the dollar is the fact that it is ubiquitous. Take this away and the value of our currency would drop substantially.
Another trouble is that all money becomes traceable. Here we must thread the line between what is good for our society and the American suspicion of totalitarian governments. I must admit a cultured dislike of taking away that measure of autonomy and the fact that powerful people could destroy a person's savings with a few clicks on a mouse.
To me, the disturbing thing is that, for the most part, this could already happen. We are dependent on trust in a society that encourages our bankers and lawyers to be untrustworthy.

Apparently there is a Youtube stream dedicated to rejected marriage proposals. I watched a couple and really do not understand how they could be considered funny.

I started watching the original Star Trek series because of the movie and after two episodes I am really enjoying the series, cheesy sets and all. It reminds me of The Twilight Zone, except better done and set in space. Not that I've ever seen that much of the Twilight Zone, as the episode I watched did not catch my interest.

This artist uses discarded plastic to make his creations. This makes me feel like making landscapes from sticks, stones, and dead leaves.

I must have this. Seriously, I need more plants and aquariums. I love creating ecosystems! But let's not focus on that when I have to work on math and physics. I will read my ecosystems book later, by which I mean tomorrow.

I feel really good today. I had a visit last night from a dear friend which went really well.

Foreign

I want to scream and jump up and down due to stress and pain. Instead of doing that I'm eating cheese popcorn and watching Colbert, which is actually much more affective due to this conversation:

"I overheard your conversation with General Odinero..."-President Obama(yes, the actual president of the USA)
"Wait, you overheard? Are your spy satellites really that good?"-Colbert
"No, my ears are really that big."- Obama

I came out of this episode with increased respect for everyone.

One thing I noticed was that Colbert got a lot more applause than the general. Poor Colbert is obviously loosing his voice in Tuesday's episode, on which he interviewed an Arab-America
soldier who chose to go into combat after 9-11 because of his hatred of how Osama bin Laden affected the portrayal of Arabs in America.

My physical therapist did an act of kindness for me, which is the main reason I felt better for the rest of the day. I think she knew how much a difference she made.

Did Hugo Chavez mistake Coke Zero for the other kind? Or is he afraid that Coke causes spontaneous support for the US government and culture?

I wonder if people will have nostalgia for this era as a time when people could make a brand out of being an individual. It's a novel concept, yet we have not seen anyone use their fickle power in a constructive manner; it's all about the money, fame, and staying in the spotlight. I wonder if it would even be possible to market yourself as a brand without a certain type of personality? People will forget what truly took place in this era-people celebrated for excessive decadence, and heiresses dancing in clubs.

The guy who shot the guard at the holocaust museum was a WWII veteran and white supremacist? That is horribly disturbing to me. I can't imagine what it's like to feel these people hating and degrading your belief system and heritage for no good reason. This man would have hurt people I know and love, perhaps even hurt me.

I don't think I have ever felt discriminated against, except for the time an old lady shouted to our bus driver "Be careful, there's a terrorist on this bus!" before stepping off. In fact, it's usually the opposite-people tend to believe I'm smarter because I'm Indian or something. It honestly makes me feel very uncomfortable when things along this line come up, and I either launch into a rebuttal or sort of cringe and wait for an opportunity to escape. I've never felt like a minority, except when very flirtatious men call me exotic. Nobody ever treated me any differently in school. In fact, most of the time I get let in through security checkpoints without a second glance. I remember going into the Tower of London after shopping in a market square. I had two bags full of cheap books on my arms, but I don't think they even looked to confirm that was all there was in them. I just waltzed through security while my companion ahead of me was stopped. Also on that trip, one of my classmates, James, who is Korean, was mistaken for my father at the airport. That was priceless.

The only place which I have experience discrimination is Trinidad, but let's not talk about that here.

It makes me scared and hurt for my friends when something like this happens. It doesn't feel like the place I grew up in, even though I really grew up in a time when things were worse(and I'm still growing up). Stay away from my loved ones, hatred-mongers.

I Have Forgotten the "Art" Tag in a Bunch of Posts

For me, personal space is a necessity. I am one of those people who may appear messy, but are actually very organized. I have a folder with my medical records, household manuals, etc sorted into neat files and my shirts are all organized according to type. There just are a bunch of books on the floor and I tend to not hang up my clothes right away.

I've learned to let go of certain things. When we first moved into our house in Winnetka I started stealing books from downstairs and buying others, all of which accumulated in stacks along the side of the wall. My parents finally decided to buy me a bookcase, so I organized the non-fiction books by topic and the fiction books by date published. The fiction books took a very long time to sort, probably four or five hours at the least, and I could never keep their order straight(though when my mom used to throw books back on the shelves it resulted in several screaming matches). I now know the general area where a book is supposed to be and the structure is too much to keep track of, so I've stopped being as exacting about it. The same thing happened with my stuffed animals. I know you're mocking me now, but I will take your mental words with a quiet dignity. Wait, I already used that joke recently. I'm cornered! The moral of the story is to not use a system that requires being more organized than you wish to be.

I tend to create a "nest" where I spend most of my time. Why do I call it a nest? Usually it is in a narrow space on the floor that rapidly accumulates books, artwork, and various other random papers. I tend to have another "nest" on a couch. These two places are where I spend 95% of my time at home. No nest of mine has ever been on a desk. I don't use desks, and I don't particularly understand why, though the big black chair next to mine tends to make me fall asleep. I like the floor.

Flight of the Conchords-"What is Wrong with the World Today"

"There's people on the street getting diseases from monkeys
Yeah that's what I said, their getting diseases from monkeys
Whys this happening, please, whose been touching these monkeys
Leave these poor sick monkeys alone
There sick, they've got problems enough as it is"

I stopped by the Betta section today in Petsmart. There was a purple boy, a color I have never seen before in real life on a Betta. After finals I'm going to clean out the three gallon and put a Betta in it or something. Also, part of my dream last night involved choosing between a water dragon and a friendly salamander, but I decided to buy these small fish living in a "sustainable environment" they would obviously be dead in a week from.

Chris and I would always stop by the Bettas together in Petsmart. I would look at them and he would go "lo-ove", as if I was going to buy one, and I would get angry with him because I thought he thought I lacked the self control to keep myself from

getting one. Why can't it be "I love you, you love me" instead of "I love you, you love me, but we're really not right for each other so no amount of trying is ever going to make this work"?

We tried, we really did, and now it's time to try with other people. Or lock ourselves up in seclusion, which is what my preference is for the moment.

I feel sort of strange for liking the following two songs. The first is "So What" by Pink, which I've mentioned here before. It's extremely catchy, and Pink uses it as an opportunity to sing her heart(break) out. I can't embed the video, so click here to listen. While I've never particularly been a fan of Pink's music, she seems like a genuine enough musician, whatever that means. I don't have anything against her.

The second song, Jai ho, is more complicated. While I loved "Slumdog Millionaire", this song is a feat with The Pussycat Dolls. I hate this group because instead of actually making good music, they writhe around on stage going "Don't you wish your girlfriend was a skank like me?"*

*not the actual lyrics

And no, I'm not jealous of them. If I thought being a skank was cool, I'd be a skank. And if your boyfriend would leave you for a skank, dump him and re-evaluate your priorities. Unless...that makes you happy(?!).

So anyways, while the singer gyrates around, the voice synthesizer she's singing into makes her voice decent and this was obviously not arranged by them. And I like this song.
Again, I can't embed the video directly, so here you go.

The above photograph does not reflect how I feel in any way. I just thought it was very evocative.
Photocredit: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

"She's so hot she's making me sexist. Bitch."

The above quote is from the "Flight of the Concords" episode "Brett Gives Up the Dream". If you are unfamiliar with this group it is a really funny comedy duo whom I would recommend.

The weather here has been interesting. We had some rain this morning, followed by sunshine, then more rain and lightning took place, then some large hail fell, and now the sun has come out again. I'm honestly glad this is taking place because this area really needs the water and the rain stopped the moment I left physical therapy(thank God for that bit of luck), but it has still been strange.

It's weird to think of candy manufacturers as being a cold-blooded industry. When I think of candy makers I picture tiny shops with sweet shopkeepers or Willy Wonka. There is an association of innocence with them in my mind; people doing their job to put a smile on children's faces, not corporate buildings and test subjects. I wonder why people go into the candy industry these day?

Frosty's post on her kitchen made me think about my own home. I live in a five hundred square foot studio, which actually is more than enough room. I have never felt cramped in here, though if I had to move all of my stuff into this place it would probably feel a lot smaller. So far, though, this apartment is the perfect size for all of my needs. This isn't a veiled criticism of Frosty, especially since I have a hard time imagining two people living in an apartment this size. I have no idea how the married couples who live in this building don't kill each other. It could be done, I think, but would require a lot of ingenuity and patience between the two people.

As mentioned before, I lived for the most part in a similar space in the Winnetka house.

Wolfgang Puck potato soup is gooooood.

Here is an article linking to a PDF called "The Anti-Choice Handbook". It's a conglomeration of lies the anti-choice movement has concocted to feed to people college-aged and under, and is extremely scary. Don't believe me? Just click the links above, and here are some quotes from the articles:

"What I first learned was that Justice For All has no problem instructing its activists to use deception to lure people into a conversation. In the section titled "Why Don't You Pass Out Condoms and Promote Birth Control?," the authors tacitly admit that sensible people might be put off by the anti-choice movement's willingness to increase the abortion rate by standing as firmly against contraception, especially the birth control pill, as they do legal abortion. So instead of allowing members to admit their hostility to all forms of contraception, they instruct them to conceal their beliefs until a target has been softened up to hear about their true message--sexual abstinence for all not trying to procreate--through a series of dodgy, misleading arguments, including misinformation about how the birth control pill works. "

"....Despite this, Justice For All encourages its activists to believe they know better than medical doctors what constitutes a medically necessary abortion, and the handbook claims there is only one instance where a pregnancy can threaten a woman's life. Conveniently, the one dangerous condition they'll admit exists (and consider a justifiable reason for an abortion) happens to be the one that is most likely to threaten her future fertility--the ectopic pregnancy--so they can rest easy knowing that even if a woman's life is saved through abortion, she's paid a steep price. Other dangerous conditions caused by pregnancy--eclampsia and placenta previa being the two biggies--are dismissed as myths used to get away with abortions. Other life-threatening illnesses like cancer are ignored, and it's assumed that a woman's health is certainly an acceptable sacrifice for a pregnancy. "

Topics, Topics, on the Wall

I found a spider drowned in the iced tea I left out last night.

Tiller's patient's remember him.
"My husband and I found Dr. George Tiller to be a caring, sensitive, and compassionate man who truly believed he was helping those of us who were desperate and had nowhere else to go. While we were at his clinic, he was very concerned about an 11-year-old child raped by her stepfather. And, when we were tormented by Operation Rescue protesters outside his clinic, he put on a bullet proof vest and personally drove us out of there while we hid in his van.."

I want to see the Coraline musical.

I have found to that I like dorkiness in man. For example, if Wesley was not fictional, I would find him attractive. He's smart, funny, and very smooth with the ladies(not). If you like David Boreanz, you must watch this clip. Wesley is the one in the gray sweater:



Also, this is why so many people love Spike:


I couldn't resist the water today. Despite the fact that it is slower I really like the breaststroke. I wish I had someone to teach me the butterfly stroke.

Sad and Happy

This is a heartbreaking story about a woman who had to have a late term abortion. I couldn't get through the entire article, and started crying in the middle. Those supposed people who would simply have an abortion without a second thought most likely don't exist. Even I, completely pro-choice, disbelieving the "fact" that a cluster of 500 cells is a human being, who never wants to have children, would think long and hard before choosing abortion. It's not just some simple thing that people do.

I've noticed that Joss Whedon has found many ridiculously beautiful unknowns, like the people who played Jenny Calendar, Saffron, Kendra, Kate Lockley, and Rebbecca Lowell(pictured). But the people he casts don't have to be beautiful or conform to certain Hollywood stereotypes.

Also for your consideration:


"But it was all a dream. A creepy, mullet-headed, checkered-shirted dream."


Both are from Jezebel. Warning: Last video links to a lot of other parodies which may cause unwarranted procrastination. Actually, it didn't for me because I'm reading something interesting, but just in case! The "Penny Lane" one has very funny parts, though.

I was thinking about how interesting it would be to study history and literature in the order in which it took place and was written, from Mesopotamia to the Indo-European cultural drift to..well, there is a lot of history, and you get the gist. I wonder how many parallels and conclusions about society you could draw. It's my intent to someday work out a version of this project, though I'm not keen on re-reading the myth discussing how this one god raped this goddess and then had sex with her daughter then had sex with his granddaughter and then his great-granddaughter etc for several generations until someone decided to have revenge on him and made him eat vegetables made from his own semen, so he got ill and the only way to get better was to have sex with the original person he raped. This myth left an impression on my fourteen-year-old mind, and the Mesopotamians wrote some very bloody, vulgar stuff, did you know? Then again, so do some Americans.

Would a review of history, society, art, and literature in this way downplay the individual role in human creativity? I think, on the contrary, it would show how human creativity channeled the forces around it intentionally or otherwise and used imagination to add to culture. Although, it would probably throw the eternal battles of human nature and repetitiveness in perspective. Every time something new has been added to the arsenal defending either side, though, or almost every time. We have the Greeks questioning the nature of language as a tool of communication, then Derrida coming along with deconstruction, and now our beautiful-but-flawed scientific field of linguistics.

I did my housecleaning today, including cleaning out the fridge, which involved a battle with a tall tribe of amazonian mold clusters and several species of gremlins. Actually, it wasn't that bad. I'll clean the bathroom next week, or procrastinate on cleaning it next week. One of these two will happen.

Um. Other things happened, I thought about other things, and I didn't go out. I'll go out later, I promise.

I Used to Love Nancy Drew(and own all the Books)(Edit 7:38pm)

I apologize for all of the spelling errors in yesterday's post.

In more interesting news, there may be a new personality disorder classification soon: post-traumatic embitterment disorder, affecting almost all anti-heroes since 1895. Another thing which makes me upset is the glorification of mental illnesses.

Today is the fortieth anniversary of "Sesame Street". Scrolling down through all the clips in the link, I felt a disconnect. I barely watched television as a child, and though later I watched such classics* as "Sabrina the Teenage Witch", "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", and "Sister-Sister"(my mom loved "Friends) my time was spent mostly reading books. I never knew the cultural references which the other middle-class kids kept making. Now, after a long period of socialization into pop culture, I can spout out many more references, although I can't say I am a better person for it. I've always been someone who valued critical thinking over name-dropping pseudo-intellectualism, though that is another topic entirely. This reminds me of the time when Ilya and I were watching "The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny" in the lab and he didn't know who Mr. Rogers was. I acted shocked, but shouldn't have-this is the exact same thing which I went through again and again. Generally I would consider myself sensitive to these sorts of things, but in this case I failed spectacularly. I wonder if I should apologize to him? How would you phrase that? "Hey Ilya. I'm not crazy, I swear!...."

*Sarcasm Alert!

Also, could people stop conducting studies on a few individuals who are socialized the same way and pretend to scientifically confirm gender stereotypes?

You know what would be a good invention? A computer screen that emits the spectrum of sunlight.

"Better off Ted"

So, today I decided to give the new series "Better off Ted" a try, since I had nothing else to watch while doing my workout. I was instantly in love with the show. It seems smart, funny, and stars Portia de Rossi(Hence the picture). It also stars a black man as a mama boy scientist, which is refreshing. The relationships and characters are quirky, and the leading man has a lot of charisma.
The show is about Ted, who leads a Cyberdyne systems-ish corporation who's name I can't remember. All I know is that the video at the beginning parodies the Cyberdine promotional video they show at Universal Studios, among others. Ted is the..I don't remember his official position, either, but he tells the scientists what to do, takes orders from Portia de Rossi, and makes everyone happy.

"Nature attacks and annihilates the pumpkin with powdery little disease, which can be mutated and designed to attack human cell structure, causing enemy soldiers to grow a magnificent, soft, downy coating. And die!"-Dr Baba(sp)
A lot of funny writing in a pilot which does not sound as good without the acting! Seriously, watch:


If you have time after that, check out the reviews on this T-shirt.
"Befuddled and noxious, I was tossing and turning in my bed late last night. I was thinking too much, breathing too heavily. My eyes were still squinted and brow furrowed, darting every which way into dark nothingness. This wasn't the first night. Nor was it the 500th. Every night is like a battle, between me and the pressures of modern civilization.

Where did I go wrong? I had everything I ever wanted: I was soundly resting in red flannel pajamas, hair parted and gelled for convenience in the morning, ceiling fan coolly whispering, "yes, this is a safe place." My job, my family, my lawn... everything was perfect. Too perfect.

I donned my bunny slippers and opened my laptop. I was on a mission, a vision quest if you will, to change my ways. To change my life. To change my shirt. In the words of one great man, "if you change your shirt, you can then change your pants, and if you change your pants, then you can change the world."

The Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt howled to me, inviting me to continue my vision quest and redeem the dreams of that great man. His name? Jobiah. He was missing 6 teeth, said "done good" instead of "did well," and could not drive. I realized: the man with the mullet, the lumberjack on lunch break, the family with the barbed wire fence - they all had something in common! It was all making sense!

But now I sit, in perpetual awe, staring at the add to cart button. Could an average joe like me ever make a difference? What if the world suddenly stops turning? Would we all be propelled into space? Not on my watch... not this time, Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt!!! Daaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!rheBzdghdxgzbdfc"

Untitled

I was outside today, observing a pine tree by my apartment. The needles quivered in the wind with such grace that it was almost like watching music while the tree itself stood out like paint strokes in the dusk. There is as affective an algorithm for calculating this movement as there is for calculating the weather, even though there is an order to it. Cacophonous music.

I saw the sharp divide between the box painting of my apartment, lit up with warm CFLs through the door, and the outside world, the universe stretching outward and beyond. The divider being, of course, the roof.

Who is there to give me a gold start for my accomplishments? Some people would, in fact, denigrate me. There are no smiley faces in a world where we are taught to crave them. I want to rise above the world of smiley faces.

I finished watching the first season of "Pushing Daisies" today. It is a great show that displays creativity and talent, which is why they, of course, canceled it. As I put it back on my shelf I realized that I could finish "Orphans of the Storm" by myself, a movie Chris and I were forever meaning to watch together. And then it all came flooding onto me, that this really was my life, mine, and mine alone now, with no restrictions as to what to watch, with nobody to watch anything with me, with no priorities dictated by another person. And honestly, I'm scared, scared of messing it all up, but glad there is nobody else to blame in the end if I do.

I don't write everything down. Why would I?

SNL! SNL!

"I wanted a guy who did stupid things to make me look smart. Instead, I got the one guy who scares me more than my dad"- Will Ferrell as George Bush

"Hey Seth, don't you think that Manny Ramirez looks like the monster from Predator?"-Will Ferrell as the Ghost of Harry Carey


"...So tell me what you're looking, looking for in a man?"-Ted Nedders
"I like strong arms"-Pretty Lady #1
"Well I got 'em"-Nedders
"I like white teeth"-Pretty Lady #2
"Hey look at 'em"-Nedders
"I like soft skin"-Pretty Lady #3
"I use lotion"-Nedders
"I like can I touuuch"-Dollhands
-From the sketch The Lawrence Welk Show

"I have not known this man for any time. But I would like to say something: Sasquatches are real!"


"I turned out your mother last night!"-"Sean Connery"
"I'm ignoring you"-"Trebek"
"It's a prison term, it means I've got her as a prostitute in my employ "-"Sean Connery"
(Tom Hanks is actually in this skit. Also, this is a MUST SEE)


"Please, no laughter"-Will Ferrell
/Entire audience bursts out laughing
-Will Ferrell's Monologue

SNL

For now, must-watch clips of SNL:



"At first, he'll date a well-known pop star. Publicly they'll claim to be virgins, but privately, he hit that."



LEONARD NEMOY

For the rest of the episode, which was great, click here.

Also, Texas is charging victims for Rape Kits?! Apparently I'm not tiring of Jezebel. I did not know that MIA had a baby, which is old news.

Exhbits, Readings, and TV

This picture is strange, but I like it. It's from the Mark Moore gallery and painted by artist Julie Heffernan, but unfortunately the photographs of the pictures are too small to appreciate any real detail in them. I would actually love to visit the gallery on May 23rd, hint hint.


My mind refuses to settle down, jumping from one project to the next. It's searching for something to involve it totally and completely in the way it wants, to provide it with what it needs, responsibility be damned. It wants to learn seven new things literally at once.

I also watched the new episode of "Castle". The difference between "Castle" and the other shows I am watching is that I actively look forward to it. I would say that I even like it better than "Bones", which has regained its standing as one of my favorite shows, even though the two are very different. Of course, "Castle" parodies "Bones" in some ways. Yesterday when I was incapacitated I finished catching up on all of the new "Bones"; that's a lot of TV. "The Double Dearly Departed" had me laughing throughout almost the entire episode and was probably my favorite of all of the new ones.

Anyways, later on I no doubt will come back to talk about some of the things I have learned today. For those who live in or by Los Angeles, LACMA currently has an exhibit about Pompeii's art and culture on display. Perhaps that's something I could see on, say, the 24th, provided it's convenient. Also, apparently there is a Lebowski fest taking place on May 7th?

I'm reading and to some extent accidentally destroying a book called The Morphology of the Folktale by Propp, an analysis of forty-two Russian folktales in an attempt to scientifically study fairy tale structure. Propp was very influenced by the anthropologist Levi-Strauss, which is why at one point I requested that book back. The problem is that the study is so mathematical it makes me feel like studying pure math, so I've been jumping between it and Linear Algebra. I also got this strange urge to read the Tale of Genjii at one point.

Review: "Sit Down, Shut Up" Episode Two

For all of of you wondering why I am watching TV: I put it on while doing exercise(and my routine is actually taking a bit longer than usual today). Speaking of which, I officially am a fan of "Castle".

Today I watched the second episode of "Sit Down, Shut Up", which was much funnier than the first one. The jokes were hit and miss, but enough hit that I am happy after watching the show and feel good about recommending it. I don't like Andrew, the gay/bi/I'll-take-whatever-I-can- get teacher, but although at first the science versus spirituality debate annoyed me, it played out to my satisfaction. I actually laughed at loud at the twist in the episode. I don't think it showed the drastic level of improvement "Parks and Recreation" did, but we're definitely starting to see some of the potential in the show realized. Also, Will Arnett should do voicework more often.

Watch the Episode here:


After I watch the newest "Parks and Recreation" I'm going to be attempting to watch "Deadwood". Right now I have to eat and am afraid of dirtying up my library book, and hey, it IS Saturday, so I think I'll watch an episode of "Bones".

Castle Episode 4 and 5, Review!

So pre-cramming for more midterms and getting to other various work, I watched TV for an entire hour. Gasp. I may even watch another episode! I also re-read a lot of "Gaijin Smash" today, but that's beside the point. Anyways, the show has started to hit its stride, although for the first time I pinpointed the killer at the beginning in episode four. One thing I noticed that bothered me at first was that Beckett, the main female lead, is an outsider in the patriarchal system of the NYPD and local government. Then I realized that the "boy's club" notion actually was probably portrayed realistically. Another thing that bothered me was that Castle always seemed to be a step ahead of Beckett when it came to figuring out the murders, but I realized that Castle's daughter, who is probably portrayed with the most positive light in this series, is the person who always helps him put the pieces of the case together. And in this last episode Castle and Beckett are learning to mesh and work together as a team, giving them both an equal role in solving the case. I also want to steal some of Beckett's coats, but I'm not actually willing to pay for them.

Find your own Megavideo links here

Ok, so apparently I watched seventy-two minutes on Megavideo and can't watch anymore, including the conclusion of the last episode. I was going to watch "Parks and Recreation" instead, but decided not to. Only after this line, however: "To this day, I'm still haunted by those pensis......
.....
One penis in particular."

This show has the same format as "The Office" but other than that is funny and creative in its own right, above the standards you would expect for an average comedy show.